1. Field of Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of distributed systems. More particularly, this invention relates to distributed systems with self-grouping communication.
2. Art Background
Distributed systems commonly include an arrangement of nodes which exchange messages via a communication network. A distributed computer system, for example, typically includes a variety computers connected as nodes on a communication network. A distributed control system, as another example, commonly includes an arrangement of nodes which perform sensor and actuator and application controller functions connected to a communication network.
Each node in a distributed system usually interacts with one or more of the other nodes via the communication network. For example, a particular node may gather data and transfer the data to selected other nodes. In addition, a particular node may perform computations and provide the results of computation to selected other nodes. As a consequence, each of the nodes is usually configured with the appropriate parameters that will enable it to communicate with the appropriate ones of the other nodes in accordance with the overall design of an application.
Prior distributed systems are usually administered systems in which each of the nodes is configured with appropriate parameters that enable communication among the nodes according to the needs of a particular application. For example, a system administrator may manually enter a set of communication parameters into each individual node. Unfortunately, such manual entry operations are usually time consuming and expensive and greatly increases the cost of installing and prior distributed control systems. Morever, such manual configuration is usually required when new components are added to the system, thereby adding to the cost of upgrading and maintaining existing systems.